“CRM” has become a buzzword in the higher education industry. Why? What is a CRM? What kind of value does a CRM add to academic institutions?
CRM refers to customer relationship management. In higher education, a CRM can mean any of several things:
1. A technology platform that organizes student information from enrollment through graduation 2. Software that allows students to select and pay for courses without human interaction 3. A “call center” for colleges that handles phone calls that interested students make college 4.A system that handles the marketing initiatives and student response generating the campaigns This brief explanation of CRM will deal with the latter; a platform that increases sign-ups and lowers cost per sign-up by synchronizing marketing behaviors with the response each marketing initiative generates.
leading generation The first piece of a full-service higher education CRM is lead generation. When higher education institutions seek to generate new students, they launch advertising campaigns. These campaigns can be carried out through various traditional channels (print, billboards, radio, mailing lists), but recently, universities launching these campaigns demand an accountability that only DRTV and online advertising channels provide.
Online advertising Online advertising can manifest itself in several ways:
oOnline lead generation using educational portals
o Development of Micro-Sites
oRemarketing of potential customers
o Search engine optimization
oKeyword search (trade name management)
oVirtual Visits
Regardless of the specific type of online advertising, the result is the same: contact with the prospective student is initiated. The advantage that the online advertising channel has over more traditional advertising channels is the level of accountability that online advertising brings: advertisers know exactly which campaigns are working and which are not, at all times.
DRTV Advertising In addition to online advertising, DRTV also features a channel that enables the development, implementation and monitoring of marketing initiatives. DRTV ads value marketing initiatives for:
1. Targeting specific demographic, geographic, and sociographic areas
2. Optimizing campaign placement based on student response DRTV advertising provides the ability to optimize and place ads based on the success of each campaign; this adds value to marketing campaigns by providing more students for less money.
Lead conversion Once the lead is generated, the second part of the CRM, lead conversion, begins to take place. Lead conversion refers to when the prospective student applies or enrolls.
In the case of online lead generation, the lead conversion process takes place as follows:
1. The prospective student clicks on an ad, fills out a contact form, or makes a phone call after seeing an ad.
2. The enrollment specialist initiates or answers the phone call that generates the advertisement and assists the prospective student in applying.
2.a The registration specialist feeds the key information from the internet portal or television channel that generated each response to the technology platform
3. The technology platform processes the information generated by each phone call and feeds this information to the customer service team
4. The CST increases or decreases the allocation of media to specific portals or channels, depending on how many applications or registrations each channel generates. Lead Generation + Lead Conversion + Sync = CRM (More Enrollments & Requests) When synced and working in unison, lead generation and lead conversion add value to colleges and universities by providing more enrollments. Academic institutions looking to generate higher student growth without devoting time, resources, and energy to building an in-house CRM can look to agencies that offer a comprehensive CRM solution.
Do you want to know more about Registration Management? Click here to sign up for the innovation ad submission management whitepaper.